Recently, Sparkcade started working with a local nonprofit organization known as Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. Our goal is to bring awareness to the mission of the organization, and raise money to build as many costumes as they can.
This organization works hard to build custom Halloween costumes for children in wheelchairs and walkers free of charge to the families. The costumes range from Star Wars characters, to pretty princesses, to Toy Story, and even the Chiefs Stadium.
About Walkin’ and Rollin’ Costumes
Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes was founded in 2015 by Lon Davis and his family. When Lon’s son Reese got his first wheelchair at age 3, Lon was inspired to create a custom Halloween costume.
“It started with just building a simple Wall-E costume around his wheelchair out of a Dell computer box,” said Lon Davis, reflecting on building his first adaptive costume for his son, Reese. “Every year, Reese has asked for a more complex, more detailed costume. It has exploded into something that was the inspiration behind Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes.”
Since the start, Walkin & Rollin has made more than 125 costumes for kids all around the nation. The kids range any age between 3-18, but most are around 6-12 years old. Walkin’ and Rollin’ make these costumes based on requests sent in from kids around the nation.
There is a costume waiting list at walkinrollin.org/requests.html, but the amount of costumes they can build for the year is entirely dependent on the availability of funds and volunteers. Each costume averages almost $300 in materials, plus several hundred more in shipping, and requires at least 120 hours to build.
Every year, the organization hosts several events to either showcase what costumes will be built that year and the final reveal:
- The 2022 costume build event will take place in Kansas City on September 17-18, at Hammerspace Community Workshop & Makerspace.
- There will also be a costume reveal party on Saturday, October 15, at Kansas City Young Audiences.
Calling All Superhero Sidekicks!
This year, a team of influencers, many based in Kansas City, have teamed up to raise money for Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. The team is known as the “Superhero Sidekicks,” and each member has pledged to raise $2,000 to go towards building this years Halloween costumes.
The group of Superhero Sidekicks consist of a variety of different platforms including: business leaders, media members, entertainers and online influencers. The Sidekicks include Brent Bowen, Brittany Burdick, Charles Clinton, Creative Cosplays Magazine, Danielle Lehman, Hartzell Gray, LoLo Spencer, Michael Mackie, Scott Parks, and Teresa Maxwell.
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